The First Review For Paper Mario: The Origami King Is Now In

Don't they give every game a 30+/40 score? Although I'm looking forward to Origami King, I wouldn't trust Famitsu's opinion. They'll love anything labelled with the Official Nintendo Seal of Approval on it.

That's a decent score, but then you see how they have rated the series in past and it all means nothing.

A demo would have been great, I haven't been so unsure of a Nintendo game in years.

36 nice...
sees scores for previous games
...ah

Hopefully this game is good and all signs point to yes. Will wait for other reviews as when you see it scored exactly the same as sticker star the review doesn't hold much weight

Wow, such an early review. I don't trust Famitsu, honestly, not specially after that 9/10 for Sticker Star...
I really hope Origami King deserves that or even more, but I'll keep my expectations low, just in case.

I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion as I haven’t played many games in the series .... but I thought Súper Paper Mario was fantastic.

That use of 2D to 3D was refreshing and hasn’t been used ever since in a game of that caliber.

Great - I don't know what people are complaining about - i really liked the last couple of Paper Mario entries.

Mmm, consistent 35/40 scores for previous games doesn't tell us much...

...Unless they gave Thousand Year Door 70/40 or something like that?

The return of gooper blooper sold me on this game.

@fafonio I would say that game is fairly fondly remembered. I would love to play it again come to think of it.

Btw did you see this yesterday:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/07/neko_ghost_jump_is_a_cutesy_puzzle-platformer_inspired_by_super_paper_mario

The Developers are in the comments section talking abut the game.

@TJWorks reviews by big game journalists dont mean anything.

Famitsu has always been one that likes to praise many Japanese made games but much like any review it is opinion and the score alone doesn't really express opinion on how they all scored it. Some people often ignore the content of a review and just use the score to see if they will like the game often getting angry at review scores for not liking the content a game has after they play it.

The only Paper Mario game I've played is The Thousand Year Door which I thoroughly enjoyed. I never got to finish it but I went really far (I think). It's even more remarkable that I enjoyed it so much because I generally hate turn based combat games. It's why I have never gotten into Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveller etc TTYD though I thoroughly enjoyed and was very disappointed to see user reviews of the subsequent games saying that the combat was messed up in them so I never bothered to play any of them. I hope the Origami King is more like TTYD

So it's on par with sticker star......

Is the actual review not available to read? Can't go off anything from the score - other than they grossly overrated the last three entries

@NintendoPete Have you played the first two games in the series? If not, you should - then you'll have an idea of why people are not happy with the more recent games.

As someone that's not a fan of the previous two entries there's not much to gauge from this review other than the idea that it has a similar aesthetic/charm to the more "modern" Paper Mario games.

A demo would be nice, though I suppose I'll wait to hear from more sources before deciding on an immediate purchase as opposed to a delayed one.

@Kimyonaakuma completely agree, a demo of the game would be great.
I've never had a proper run with previous entries so a demo to refresh my memory and entice me to buy the game would be great.

I'm sure it will be very well polished, and that it all boils down to preference when it comes to whatever gameplay mechanics they chose to use, as always. Reviews can just give us someone else's opinion, brutally honest in the best cases but not necessarily in line with my opinion, or boot licking to get those favours / positive or negative to get those views and therefore arguably even more worthless. All I need to see is how it works gameplay-wise (is it an rpg?), its length and how it uses your time (the value), and how it runs, technically. First party Nintendo games rarely go down in price a lot, but are technically mostly "perfect", and often have a high fun factor, but at those prices I need to have a good feel of what I'm getting into if I decide to pay up...

I always groan whenever I see an article about the first review for a hotly anticipated new game and then see it's Famitsu... Their scores never really give any indication of the quality of a game, since they somehow seem to aware every game a score in the mid to upper 30s (as shown by all their Paper Mario review scores).

@fafonio super paper mario is great. The story and writings are great too. Colour splash did use the 2d/3d mechanic in one of the retro levels

It would be nice to see the review detail as well as the scores.

Whatever the score, i will keep buy this Paper Mario because i have to forget to find Paper Mario TTYD as the price was unbuyable on Ebay.

@Jacob1092 Nope, this and the original Paper Mario received only 33/40 regarding to an comment here: https://nintendoeverything.com/famitsu-review-scores-july-8-2020/

This will be my first Paper Mario game. I bought the one on Wii, but only played it briefly (from memory) and I haven't bought Sticker Star or Color Splash. I skipped Color Splash mainly because I thought that it would be ported to the Switch, especially as it was released so late into the Wii U's lifespan (just 6 months before the launch of Switch).

I thought Color Splash would have sold atrociously, so I'm frankly surprised that we didn't get a port of that before getting a whole new entry in the series. In retrospect, I'm regretting not having grabbed Color Splash when I had the chance, but that will probably get ported in a couple of years to fill in the mid-year release drought.

@Incognito_D

I actually didn't. I am trying to get hold of the GameCube version but it is going for a small fortune right now. But eventually I will play it nevertheless I had a lot of fun with Color Splash and Sticker Star and Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario

Well this review score helpfully allows us to establish that The Origami King is indeed a game in the Paper Mario franchise.

Yeah, I am still probably not going to buy this, at least not straight away. I still need to finish Colour Splash, and quite frankly, it is like rubbing my face against a wall; extremely slow and slightly painful. I also need to finish the N64 original, I an very close to the end on that one.

The only thing we need to know is... Is it more like Thousand Year Door or Star Sticker? Since the entire world seem to prefer the more RPG-focused game play of the former, you'd hope that the dev would get the hint!

a strong Fam out of itsu

Too bad for Famitsu the only score that matters is the user score.

the original Paper Mario got a 33/40 and Super Mario RPG even a 32/40

@thiswaynow Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door got a 33/40, Paper Mario: Star Sticker got a 36/40

The only game I've played in this series is Colour Splash. Picked it up cheap when Toys R US was going bust. It was ok, but I've still not finished it as it didn't grab me. This series isn't a day-1, must-have for me, but as it's Nintendo I could be convinced otherwise if it got across-the-board praise. The trailer looked good, but that doesn't mean much as aside from the likes of Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival and Wii Music it's rare for Nintendo games to look bad in a trailer.

@Max_the_German It was a bit of a long shot I guess. Thank you for the source though!

All I need to know is if battles are fun, and have purpose and incentive again. That's it. that's all I need to know if this will be worth a $60 adventure

Well, at least it tells us that the game can be good.

@thiswaynow
Seems like it's neither.

@fafonio Super Paper Mario was fine, I don't think that opinion's too controversial... It's the two games that came out after that were just terrible. If you ever get the chance, you should play Thousand Year Door.

@Alztru
I'm just the same. Never been a fan of RPG's/turn based RPG's etc. However a good few years ago I played my first one - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Loved the hell out of it until... the three stage final boss battle. Holy cow! Try as I might, I could never beat the final form. As such, I've not played any form of RPG since. That being said, I did purchase the original Paper Mario from the Wii Shopping Channel back in the day and I picked up TTYD for a good price of eBay a few year back; I fully intend to play both at some point in time.

Score won't be as relevant as any description on battling rewards or purpose

@TJWorks I suspect they only review good games, and is why they are never give low scores.

@fafonio Well I thought it was absolutely brilliant. It's my second favourite paper Mario after the thousand year door (obviously) 😉

After looking at those score for sticker star and colour splash i dont hold their review with any credibility at all. Complete trash (for the series) with absolutely zero incentive to enter any battles. No character development via an xp bar will kill origami for me.

I would love to get but out of money this month, spent it on a hat in time an dlc.

Some of the other Paper Mario series games are rated too high there by Famy.

I'll wait for your review.

Think Japanese are way more into these newer Paper Mario's. I won't get this game unless the big blue Arlo gives his blessing.

@Joriss Imagine depending on one person on whether to get a game or not and not gather an abundance of reviews to see whether the game is good with your own judgement..

@fafonio Consesus generally is that all three of the first PM games were wonderful (with TYD being the most beloved). If Oragami is consistent with all those, most people will be happy.

I think it's funny people on NintendoLife are critical of reviewers. Have you seen the reviews this site puts out? Remember how they treated Bloodstained with kids' gloves? I don't recall any other games, being released in a garbage state, being given a generous patching period, before being reviewed by NL.

@Ardisan I normally do that but for Paper Mario it's an exception, and not to be taken 100% seriously of course.

Nice bought score

they shoulda just remastered 1000 year door

@King-Demon
I would buy that in a heartbeat.

@Kimyonaakuma Y’all find any reason to complain. After Luigis Mansion, how can you be so “unsure” ? Y’all are weird with these takes.

@1UP_MARIO Wish I could ❤️ this a 1000x

@Joriss Sheep

I’m not a fan of this series at all. But given that this is sort of their only game on the horizon at this given moment lol... I might give it a shot.i hope it surprises me because it looks pretty fun.

***Silently prays for a craft less Yoshi’s Island And Wario Land remake***

@fafonio
I loved the action platformer style of super paper Mario.

Seeing as they rated the previous 2 just as highly it doesn't exactly add to my confidence about this game. The one thing I would like clarification on are the partners are they area specific or not? As stupid as it may be to many, this is the biggest thing keeping me from pre-ordering, I like my party members in games, so even if they get "bland" post introduction arc, if I can still use them in the world then I will be more content than if they are just made to be story specific and then never seen again. The consensus online seems to be bouncing from they are only temporary to Bobby was at the blue streamer in the mountains and again on the Blooper boat showing they go everywhere, but have no clear idea...

Can anyone explain to me why the previous scores Famitsu gave for earlier games in the series are making this score look suspicious? I guess it doesn’t help that I have never played a Paper Mario game...are they any good?

@Snatcher I read that as, “out of money because I bought a hat.”

Now where’s my coffee....

😑

@NintendoPete
Yes! Haven't played sticker star, but I really enjoyed Color Splash. I get that the battle system wasn't super exciting, but I thought it was a great game.

Eh, I think the game will likely review well, but I can't take Famitsu scores seriously at all when they rated Animal Crossing amiibo Festival higher than their score for Celeste.

@fafonio I like Super Paper Mario too.

Haha. Good joke.

..wait, it's not quite as funny the third time around, kid.

Seems to me like they give any first party game a relatively high score.

I played sticker star and it was awful

Reviews are entirely subjective and though I like the Paper Mario series and Famitsu's scores for them, even I find their scores for other games a bit...odd.

Luigi's Mansion at 34/40, Dark Moon at 35/40, and Luigi's Mansion 3 at 33/40. I didn't think Dark Moon was that great and is my least favorite in the series for its Mission Structure, little ghost variety, and low difficulty.

Super Smash Bros Brawl at 40/40...as a huge fan of that series, I didn't like it much. I'd literally take any Smash game over this.

Agents of Mayhem at 31/40. Erm, I think it deserves much lower. It was an overall bland open world M-rated game with a serious indentity crisis. Hopefully the devs go back to continuing the Saints Row series.

The Legend of Dark Witch series...hoo boy, first game at 29/40, second game at 31/40, and third game at 30/40. The first two games DESTROY the third game and for numerous reasons beyond lack of boss powers and lack of Syega Shop. At least Brave Dungeon 3DS has 31/40.

Thankfully I loved Paper Mario Color Splash and Sticker Star (working my way through Super Paper Mario now) . I am very excited to play this.

@VegasToad

I can't speak for everyone else who is on the fence, but the trend of Paper Mario is a downward one for me. I loved 64 and TTYD, and I really enjoyed Super. Sticker Star was terrible, and Color Splash (while beautiful, with some truly funny moments) wasn't much better.

@Incognito_D The only one I haven't played is GC one (so hard to find), but you are right I do prefer the N64 version to the later ones. But that being said I still like all of the paper mario games a great deal and I would put color splash at a solid 9 and the original N64 game at a 10.

Also, much props for the Ryo Hazuki icon. Such a great series.

They all gave sticker star 9/10 so to me their opinion is worthless

Huh? They gave super paper mario a lower score than the one they gave to god awful color splash and "please never again" sticker star? Definitely I should stop trusting that publication. Worst taste ever

Still, I prefer a review from you guys before deciding on buying this. I'm on the fence for several reasons (two of them already described in my previous paragraph). I'm expecting something AS good as Thousand Year Door or Super Mario RPG. Hopefully this is it.

I’m happy to wait on this one to see where the general consensus lands. Maybe pick it up for around $40 someday if it’s good.

I'm pretty sure they've given most recent JRPGs a score over 30 lol

Anyone who rates Sticker Star over Super Paper Mario cannot be trusted.

@fafonio Thousand-Year Door is my personal favorite, but I'm right there with you; Super Paper Mario is still a masterpiece. It definitely has a mixed reception, as some people view it as the start of the decline of the series by abandoning the traditional RPG mechanics. Personally, though, I'm fine with or without turn-based battles as long as the story and characters are enticing, and this is where I thought Super Paper Mario excelled. And that's also the reason I don't think I'll enjoy Origami King.

@WachiAlphi They are area specific.

@NintendoPete the majority of people wanted more character depth, more interesting plot, and a less useless battle system. Basically they felt far too basic and skin deep.

A nine just means that it is not quite good enough for a 10, which is disappointing. Or maybe it's just a generous 8 and the Paper Mario formula just isn't up there in the tens. Either way it's Mario.

@PikaPhantom that is legitimately a disgustingly wrong review

The score’s good, but they rated previous games too high. And by that, I mean, this game’s going to be better than the rest of the series combined.

@PikaPhantom Okay, that’s weird, because Celeste is really good. But Amiibo Festival is also great! I can’t compare them as I haven’t played Celeste, but I think Amiibo Festival is super underrated. It’s super fun, and I’d say it’s better than any of the 3DS Mario Party’s, probably the Wii/Wii U/Switch ones as well. 😉

As much as I admittedly enjoy reading about Famitsu's take on games I'm interested in, I've never considered them the most...reliable. At least in some situations.

I'd hav to wait for a few other review scores, preferably in English to give me a better idea of what I'd be getting. Famitsu's reviewers tend to come across as easy to please most of the time.

@NintendoPete While they were super well written and the story and humour kept me going, the actual PLAYING of the games, especially their battle systems, felt like a chore and tried their best to put me off every time an enemy came up. I still rolled credits on both, don't get me wrong, but sometime it really felt like the games didn't want me to. Colour Splash was definitely an improvement on Sticker Star though, so here's hoping they keep improving. Whether this is a "well, I finished it and there's some fun to be had in there" or "THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR" kind of all hangs on how the new battle system pans out.

@BabyYoshi12

D:

@Lettersnnumbers that's super unfortunate. I couldn't find any definitive statement on this, but it was what I expected. Thanks for clarifying.

Personally I loved the first 3 Paper Mario games but everything after that was just a letdown. I hope this one is better 🤞

So, the same rating as Sticker Star. Not necessarily a good thing.

@PrincessAzunyan That makes sense. Doesn’t Famitsu also have a reputation for accepting payments under the table in exchange for favorable reviews, so to speak? I seem to remember hearing about that a couple years back.

People have unfairly written this game off already, so I expect even if this game gets good scores across the board, they'll be claims of "NiNtEnDo BiAs!" or whatever . 🤷

Getting this but Famitsu's are a terrible site, they have near perfect scores too dynasty warriors 9, never seen them rate any thing low, worst review site out there. But to expect game to be good

Nintendo life please stop posting scores from Famitsu, they are awful.

Thank you commenters who signal I can skip the rest of your comment when you misspell Color Splash.

Every time an article says the first review is in for a game its always famitsu and its always high 30s.i knew the conclusion to this story without even reading it.

If you enjoy something, bolly for you.

If not, who really cares?

Opinions are just just that- opinions.

To continually disparage someone for liking or disliking something to the contrary is insanity.

I'll be waiting to see if it impresses Arlo

@PrincessAzunyan never said it was scary or self righteous, just seeing a ton of negativity and animosity from folk who never played said game or making asinine assumptions. It’s a weird trend lately and exhausting to witness, to be honest.

@NintendoPete do what I did go to pawn shops I got my copy of thousand year door for a dollar.

@WachiAlphi It was in the Game Informer interview.

Got excited but then remembered they gave Sticker Star the same score.

I trusted the Famitsu scores, this means the game is good. Sure it won't be for everyone but still a good game nonetheless like the ones before it. People just don't like it cause it isn't anything like their precious Thousand Year Door and Paper Mario 1. C'mon at least the series evolving rather than doing the same thing every gen.

@PrincessAzunyan I agree.

Famitsu are infamous for harshness so when they hate something, they’ll be brutally honest. Glad they like it though. Plus, I can’t take Western journalism seriously anyway.

Honestly, the way the media tended (minus GameXplain) to review Sticker Star without properly addressing its numerous glaring design flaws was...I won't say dishonest, but disappointing. I'm waiting to see some people who aren't reviewers get their hands on this one.

(I don't care if it's TTYD 2 - I care if it has a fun story, good puzzles, good battle mechanics, and a reason to do those puzzles and battles. Not just a lot of coins and toads and paper gags. Story, puzzles, and battles. I want to know they got that right before purchasing.)

I predict a 7 from EDGE.

Its official. There's no traditional exp,, only coins, according to this gameplay video https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/paper-mario-the-origami-king-10-minutes-of-gameplay/vi-BB16viCW

@1UP_MARIO A fuqin men!! People beg for sh1t then review bomb it before it even comes out.

Okay, now everyone has me suspiciously wary of this game. Thanks Internet.

@Lettersnnumbers
I like how we can isolate the two separate groups of Nintendo’s devs: those that understood what BOTW was doing and those that didn’t, the latter camp is why games like Star Fox and Paper Mario are stuck in gimmick hell instead of giving people what they want.

@edgedino

Hey - unfortunately we don't have pawn shops here in Germany - at least not that I know of. Thus said, you made an awesome deal getting paper mario for a dollar!

The Origami King looks so pretty, I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I know the most recent entries haven’t been as well received as earlier games in the series, but I just love the art style of Origami King, and I’m excited to get my hands on it.

@NintendoPete no pawn shops that stinks but I guess also understandable because of the business model, but ya pawnshops are amazing for games cause they will give a staderd price like 5$ per game regardless even old sports games nobody buys and sells games for generally cheap all because they don't go by the actual value unlike gamestop who will pay a penny for a stack of non Nintendo games and sell games at full brand new price or more at times.

Personally enjoyed Sticky Star.. Pre-purchased already.

@Lettersnnumbers god, no... seriously thinking on cancelling my preorder now.

@Incognito_D first Three games were excellent.

First two games are what I want Paper Mario to be again. That is to say the actual Paper Mario world, not the world of Mario rendered in paper. If you don’t know what that means, play Thousand Year Door. It’s an entirely different world to that of regular Mario’s. Now play Sticker Star or Colour Splash, that’s all gone. Aside from a few loosely paper based mechanics that could easily be reskinned, there’s nothing that sets it apart from regular Mario. It doesn’t feel like it’s own world anymore.

But that seems to be the direction they want to take it. It’s sad after they finally mixed up Mario proper more with Odyssey, that they feel the need to go even more generic Mario here again. But if others get enjoyment out of it who am I to judge. Maybe one day they’ll acknowledge TTYD exists and port it to something else?

Likelihood of buying Luigi’s Mansion 3 instead intensifies.

It has now been confirmed this is not an RPG as it has no exp gain in battles and I will skip it (as most likely people will do with battles itself...)

I've had this pre-ordered since the day it was announced same as with most Nintendo published games. Can't really imagine a scenario where I'd end up regretting that. Reviews don't usually sway me, I read them for the details and facts pointed out.

This looks very familiar.... DQ11????

can someone translate the review? Does it say if the game is actually an RPG or not?

I understand the frustration with Sticker Star but I feel half the people who hate on Color Splash never played it and just assume it's Sticker Star 2. It was an amazing game and definitely had progression via combat by means of increasing paint levels which were basically mp. If you skipped enemies the game would become hard due to shallow resources. Color splash and Xenoblade X were prob my two favorite Wii U games. I think nostalgia for old games kills our enjoyment of many new games. I felt that way with Final Fantasy as a series, loved the old ones.

A game can be an RPG without EXP.
Role playing doesn't require experience points. Renaissance fairs are role playing and I have never seen exp awarded.

@StevenG I agree, note how I said "traditional" because of the no world map and loading screens, I think that the heart ups from sticker star will probably be returning, but, this time it looks like there are a lot of them, so my theory is that you can but them from a shop with your coins.

Edit: Actually it works exactly like sticker stars heart ups. But.. I still think the game will be fun because to me it looks like an improved color splash and the battle system looks better than Color Splash's, and that really was the major problem with the game

@Fandabidozi Buy Luigi's Mansion 3. While I think this game will probably be enjoyable and a fun time, Luigis Mansion 3 was something else. I recommend buying that one.

@TJWorks Yeah, if it's a first party game. It's guaranteed to be a near-perfect score.

In fact, Famitsu has only given one negative review in their 30 year history...

@Mando44646 Famitsu's reviews are normally very vague. The score of the game is the total of four reviewers, who only give about one or two sentences on their thoughts of the game.

So probably none of your questions about the game will be answered here.

I don’t trust Famitsu reviews, especially if they rated the last two highly when they most definitely were not by every other publication.

@Lettersnnumbers
Yeah, only a rave review of Paper Mario can sway me at this point. I’m betting Luigi’s Mansion will go on sale in October but the $60 I have on my account needs spending ASAP. 😅

@Kitoro

Until it comes time for fanboy/console wars or you're not praising or feeling a popular game on a certain toy or something lol. Then it can be gospel because it fits lol. And actually I tend to agree with you. There's just never any consistency with it.

@JesWood13

Well considering that there's not been one Paper Mario that's dipped close to a 50 or even 60 overall when looking at any aggregates, it's certainly not just Famitsu that have been favorable towards the game or serious.. At the end of the day, they're only one of many that have helped those games score fairly well in the long run to be fair.

@Juga Wait until Monday the 20th. Then you can make a more informed decision 👍

@fafonio people are back and forth on hating super paper Mario. They either love it for the story or hate the gameplay. I rather the original two games myself but I don't hate super. I'm not a bug fan of the current paper Mario games myself but that's because it ditched being an RPG.

Sorry, I just cannot play through a game with a tedious, ring based battle system. Why do they insist on ruining each Mario rpg game with goofy battle mechanics. Consumable stickers....really? They're trying too hard. Stop trying to be cute, just give us a simple, classic, fun system. How the series peaked with the 90's Squaresoft version is disappointing.

@EvilKenpachi Sure it does. Sticker Star was great. Entitled whiners upset it was not Thousand Year Door.

@zzzyzxroad I don't think entitled whiners is accurate. It is personal opinion mostly. I play both thousand year door and sticker star, actually 100% sticker star but I wouldn't call the game great. Majority seem to rate thousand year door higher but as I said it is all personal opinion.

@StevenG

You know, I think that you actually have a point there. LOL

@fafonio I’m glad! While Super Paper Mario wasn’t like the previous two, it definitely holds its own. It was able to do things differently without taking away every thing that made the series great in the first place.

Sees Origami King score tied with Sticker Star. :/